Hi everyone,

I’m currently using LinkDrip as a link shortening tool. While it works fine for most users, I’ve recently had several reports from users that their antivirus software flagged the links as phishing. After digging into it, I discovered that the drp.li domain (used by LinkDrip) landed on blocklists due to abuse by bad actors, which unfortunately impacts legitimate users like me.

This raises a broader concern: could this happen with any link shortening tool?
My assumption is that more established tools like Bitly, Short.io, or Switchy.io may have better scam prevention measures in place, and thus are less likely to be flagged.

Does anyone have real-world experience with this? Can you confirm or deny my assumption about more reputable tools being safer from such issues?

Exploring Alternatives

To regain full control, I’m considering self-hosting a link shortener with a custom domain. After some research, I found two promising options:

1. YOURLS: I like its plugin ecosystem for adding new features.
2. Shlink: It seems to have strong, out-of-the-box features for analytics and management.

Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with self-hosted link shorteners. Are there any gotchas I should be aware of, or additional tools I should consider?

Use Case Context

I mainly use short links for:

1. Social Media Posts: To hide UTM parameters.
2. Webinar Join Links: This is the bigger use case.
   • I host webinars via YouTube Live. In the past, I had technical issues that forced me to change the YouTube watch link right before event start. To prevent future disruptions, I started using short links for webinars so I can easily swap the destination URL if needed.
   • However, more and more webinar attendees are reporting issues accessing the link due to the flagged domain problem, which is why I’m exploring alternatives.

Advanced Considerations for Link Tracking

I'm also interested in exploring advanced features like A/B testing, where traffic can be split between multiple destinations to optimize conversion rates, and retargeting ads, where links include tracking pixels for better ad targeting. Additionally, smart redirects would be highly beneficial—for example, automatically directing iOS users to the App Store, Android users to Google Play, or providing language and country-specific URLs based on the user’s location. If anyone has implemented these features with self-hosted tools like YOURLS or Shlink—or has alternative suggestions—I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Any advice, recommendations, or insights from your experience would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance! 🙏